Designed for Love (8 page)

No more had I closed the car door, I saw
Bill come out of his room. Great! I needed to get out of here. I needed some
space, room to breathe, time to think. Although, I didn't really want to think
right now. What I wanted was to forget Bill even existed. Yeah, like that was
going to happen. Not in this lifetime. Still, I could at least put him out of
my mind for the time being.

I pulled out of the parking lot and
turned onto Route 41. I needed a discount store or any other store that sold
flat irons and makeup. Even a drug store would do. The next intersection provided
exactly what I was looking for. I turned into the parking lot and found a close
spot. Talk about lucky. A car backed out of a spot near the door. I flipped on
my blinker and waited while they pulled away, then turned into the spot.

With a quick glance at my watch, I
hurried into the store, smiled at the greeter and grabbed a cart. Looking up at
the signs, I headed to the back of the store toward the health and beauty
products.

After picking out what I needed, I
glanced at my watch. Good, I still had time to get ready for dinner.

I wondered what room Nick was in. Not
that I really cared. I just hoped he wasn't too close. That's all I needed.
Having Bill next door was bad enough. I paid for my purchases and headed back
to my car.

Back in my room, I decided on the white
Capri pants for dinner with the blue blouse. I looked in the mirror and
smoothed my hair. As good as it was going to get and not a moment too soon.
Someone knocked on the door. I grabbed my purse and room key and hurried out.
No point letting Nick in.

I opened the door and a very tanned, very
handsome, Nicholas Donatello stood in front of me. His light brown shirt set
off his golden brown eyes. His usual wavy black hair was now cut in a crew cut.
The look suited him.

He looked me up and down and let out a
low whistle. "You know, I think this is the first time I've seen you in
anything besides a dress or a skirt."

Heat crept up my neck. Why hadn't I
thought to wear a skirt? The look was too casual for dinner with my boss. I
hoped he didn't get the wrong idea. To make matters worse, I couldn't think of
an intelligent thing to say.

"Shall we go, I'm starved." Now
that was a downright lie. After that late lunch, I no more felt like eating
than I felt like hiking.

Nick moved aside and let me walk in front
of him. He put his hand on my back and led me toward his car. A sleek white
Corvette. Why didn't that surprise me? Of course, he'd have a sports car. Not
crazy about his hand on my back, I tried to move away tactfully. "Nice
car." I stepped back as if to check it out.

"It's okay."

Okay, what was he, nuts? Of course, he
drove a BMW M6 convertible at home. Had to cost over a hundred grand. No way a
corvette could compete. I almost laughed out loud. Compared to my little Saturn
it was like yachts and rowboats.

I slid into the seat, glad now I wore the
Capri pants. I didn't care much for the way Nick looked at me– like he wanted
to devour me. Something didn't feel right. This didn't feel like a business
dinner. "Is Mrs. Gilmore going to meet us at the restaurant?"

Nick opened the car door and got into the
driver's side. "No, she isn't."

I didn't like it. Nope, not even a
little. "So what's going on? I thought the living room was all set. I
already ordered the fabric for the drapes and chairs. What kind of changes does
she want now?"

Mrs. Gilmore had the reputation for
changing her mind. I remembered the last room I designed for her, the master
bedroom. Gladys Gilmore changed her mind about the drapes and bedding three
times before she made a final decision. Hell, she changed her mind four times
on the living room already.

"We'll discuss that with her
tomorrow. Can't you forget about work for one night?"

Uh oh, I didn't like the sound of this.
"I thought that's what you wanted to discuss."

"Tonight I just want to relax and
enjoy your company." Nick reached over and touched my arm.

I stiffened under his touch. Nothing at
all like Bill's. "I'd really like to know what's going on with Mrs.
Gilmore." Bring it back to business. I didn't want him to get the wrong
idea. Besides he was my boss, and I never mixed business with pleasure.

Nick took his hand away. "Don't you
ever have fun? Can't you forget about business for one night?" He parked
the car in the lot next to Joe's Crab Shack, turned off the ignition and looked
at me.

My cheeks burned. How was I going to
handle this? "Look, Nick, just so there's no misunderstanding. I'm
involved with someone. I came here on business, not for pleasure."

Nick smiled. "Fair enough. Okay,
business it is, but only after dinner. So tell me who you're involved with.
What's his name? What does he do for a living?"

I groaned. Now what had I got myself
into? I thought if I told Nick I was involved it'd solve the problem. I walked
up the ramp to the restaurant and took a deep breath. "His name is Bill.
He's an architect." Oh, Lord, what made me say that? Why didn't I make up
a name?

Nick took my hand and followed the host
to the table. "So is it serious with this guy, Bill? I didn't know you
were seeing someone."

I wished the ground would open up and
swallow me. I hated lying. "Pretty serious."

"Uh huh. So did you leave him home
miserable and lonely?"

"Actually he's here in Florida. He just
happened to have business here too."

"Really, that's great. We'll have to
get together. Why didn't you tell me? He could have come along tonight."

I grimaced. Just what I needed. Bad
enough I lied, now he wanted to get together. How to get out of that? "I
thought this was a business meeting. I thought Mrs. Gilmore would be
here."

Nick rubbed his chin and looked at me.
Oh, God, he knew I was lying. What was I going to do now? Why did I have to say
he was here to top it all off? What if he insisted on meeting him? How was I
going to pull that off?

Was there any chance Bill would go along
with such a ruse? Dare I ask him? Dumb, dumb, dumb. Where were my brains?
Seemed like ever since I met Bill, I couldn't think straight. Hell, I couldn't
seem to think at all.

"Well," Nick finally said,
"since she's not here and your friend's not here, whatta ya say we kick
back, relax, and have a little fun?"

The waiter appeared to take our order.
Nick ordered a beer and I asked for a cola.

"A cola, come on, girl, lighten up.
How about a cocktail, martini or something?"

I didn't much care for alcohol, but agreed
to a raspberry martini. I ordered the Crab Stuffed Shrimp and Nick ordered the
Jumbo Bayou Shrimp. When he reached his hand across the table and stroked mine,
my stomach lurched. I tried to pull away, but he took my hand and held it.

"Why so tense?"

"Look, Mr. Donatello, I'm not
feeling real comfortable right now."

Nick smiled and stroked my hand.
"You're not engaged or anything, are you? I mean how long have you known
Bill?"

The drinks arrived and saved me the
embarrassment of another lie. "Maybe we should skip dinner." I pulled
my hand away, picked up the drink and sipped it.

"Don't be silly, we've already
ordered."

I swore he enjoyed my discomfort.
"Okay, so we'll eat, then we'll go."

"Come on, Wendy, lighten up. When's
the last time you had a little fun? Surely you're not this tense with
Bill."

I leaned back and put my hands in my lap.
Safely away from Nick. I didn't like the look in his eyes. Typical guy, out for
one thing. I had a feeling this evening wasn't going to end well. How was I
going to face him in the morning? Hell, how was I going to work for him now?

And how the hell was I going to let him
down without jeopardizing my job? Only one thing to do. I'd have to ask Bill
for his help.

"No, I'm not this tense with Bill,
but that's because we're practically engaged. I mean not officially, but we've
been talking about marriage." At least the last part wasn't a total lie.
Bill and I had talked about marriage, just not to each other.

Nick took a swig of his beer. "Well,
hell, why didn't you say so to begin with? Look, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to
offend you. Hell, I thought you were fair game."

Heat rushed to my cheeks. Fair game? What
did I look like, a piece of meat? I counted to ten. This was my boss after all
and I didn't want to lose my job. I let out a breath. "Okay, look, let's
forget the whole thing."

The waiter approached with our order. The
shrimp smelled and looked delicious. Usually I loved shrimp, but after the
incident with Nick I lost my appetite. Hopefully, we could eat and get the hell
out of here. Back to the safety of my hotel room. Although with Bill next door,
I wasn't sure how safe I'd be there, either. At least he hadn't rushed me.
Hadn't forced himself on me. For all I knew he didn't even think of me that
way.

"Okay, tomorrow we meet with Gladys
at one o'clock. I'll pick you up. Tell Bill to meet us for dinner at the Bahama
Breeze Restaurant on Route 41 and

Oh, crap. I thought he was joking about
that. Now what was I going to do? Only one thing I could do, I had to ask Bill
to pose as my boyfriend. I had no choice. It was the only way to get Nick off
my back. Otherwise I was going to have to quit my job, and I really didn't want
to do that.

Nope, that was my only alternative. I
knew if Nick had the opportunity he'd make another pass at me. Only Bill could
save me that disastrous fate. If nothing else, Nick never made a pass at a
married or engaged woman. He had some morals.

I ate only about a third of my shrimp. I
hadn't been very hungry to begin with, and now I lost my appetite completely.

How in the world was I going to broach
this ridiculous plan to Bill?

Chapter Twelve

Thank God, the evening finally ended.
After I refused another drink and acted bored and preoccupied, Nick finally
gave in and took me back to the hotel. How the hell was I going to approach
Bill? Worse yet, it had to be tonight. I needed him at dinner tomorrow. Or did
I? Could I make an excuse that he had a dinner meeting with a client?

I thought about that for a minute. I
could do that, but it was only a stall tactic and eventually, I'd have to
introduce Bill to Nick. May as well talk to him and get it over with. Damn, I
hated lying. Hated concocting ridiculous plans like this one.

Even when I was younger and my sisters plotted
out silly plans to meet boys, I didn't go along. If you wanted to meet someone
you just met them. I never could understand the idea of setting up an
accidental meeting. Why go to all that trouble when you could just walk up to
someone and introduce yourself?

If they were interested you'd know in a
matter of minutes. If not, then you hadn't wasted precious time trying to
figure out how to do it.

This idea was even more absurd than all
those others, but I had no choice. I picked up the phone and dialed.

"Hi, Bill, this is Wendy."

"You must have been reading my mind.
I was thinking about you."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, how about meeting me for
breakfast tomorrow about nine?"

I let out a breath. Okay, maybe this
wouldn't be so difficult after all if he was thinking about me. "Uh, sure.
Why not? Listen, I need a big favor."

"Okay, what?"

I laughed. "Just like that. You
don't even want to hear it first?"

"Hey, anything you need, babe."

Oh, crap, was this going to come with
strings attached? "Uh, can you refrain from calling me names like
that?" Great, I wanted him to pose as my boyfriend, yet I didn't want him
to call me names of endearment. Was I some kind of a nut?

Bill chuckled. "Sorry, can't help
myself. Okay, what kind of a favor?"

I held my breath. Here goes nothing.
"I need you to pose as my boyfriend. Just for a couple of days. My boss
made a pass at me and to turn him off I lied and told him I had a
boyfriend." I talked too fast, but I couldn't help it. I had to say it and
get it over with.

Silence on the other end of the phone
caused me a moment's anguish. Had I made a mistake? What a fool. He wasn't
going to agree. Why would he? I'd been nothing but rude to him since we met.
Had he hung up on me? The silence was deafening.

"Hello, are you there?"

Someone knocked on the door. Hopefully it
wasn't Nick. "Hold on," I said into the phone. I set the receiver
down and went to the door, peeked through the peep hole. "Bill!" I
pulled the door open. "What are you doing? I'm talking to thin air on the
phone."

Bill laughed, walked past me into the
room and hung up the phone. "I'm not there anymore."

"I can see that." Crap, what
was I going to do now?